April 22nd 2014 was the 44th time that Earth Day was celebrated around the world following its inception in 1970 by the Earth Day Network. From small beginnings in New York City during its inaugural year the celebration has expanded to encompass 192 countries around the globe with more than one billion observing the celebration in 2014. Environmental groups have ceased the opportunity of Earth Day to promote and changes in both environmentally damaged policies and human behaviour. Ceasing this thought for myself, I have listed some of my favourite pieces of technology that contribute to a greener planet to celebrate the day that was Earth Day 2014.

  • Environmentally Friendly Products

In recent times several large electronics manufacturers have taken the bold step of going towards eco friendly products for their products. The two biggest and most famous names to taken the first steps down this green path are Asus and SanDisk, both companies involved in computing technologies. Both businesses are integrating bamboo from renewable sources into certain devices with Asus Ultrabook U33Jc and a new SanDisk 16GB flash drive looking both stunning and helping save the planet.

The companies have clearly based their decision to incorporate bamboo into their devices for two reasons, one is the aesthetics as both devices are visually superior to normal plastic covered devices and being more eco responsible the second. Bamboo grows quicker and releases more oxygen into the atmosphere than other trees so each of these bamboo computing devices made incorporate the aims of Earth Day.

  • Business Data

Business is known to be one of the worst offenders for causing environmental issues with every business type culpable in one way or another, whether it be the continual printing off emails in your average office or having fleets of lorries or travelling salesmen driving coast to coast amongst many, many things unhealthy for the environment. However, there are ways to edge towards bringing your carbon footprint down and two of the best examples I have seen have come from one famous face and one newer company in the business data storage area.

The older of the two companies is AISO.net who since 1997 have aimed to make their data centres as green as possible with solar power, cooling from water evaporation and air conditioning units powered by atmospheric energy. The younger of the two is a South Carolina based company called Green Cloud Technologies who recently announced a plan of planting one tree per quarter for each business customer on their books. Both are perfect ways of storing data while ensuring that you do your part to give back to the planet.

  • Public Transport

In the heat of Adelaide, Australia the days of diesel chugging buses are numbered with a new bus, called the Tindo – which is the aboriginal word for sun – is carrying the city’s population to their destinations. The bus is a fully solar powered vehicle with both the engine and its onboard devices powered from the sun charged batteries and in order to ensure that its full environmentally friendly potential is released the city have made the bus free to ride with free Wifi on board.

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The buses are expected to save more than seventy thousand kilograms of carbon and fourteen thousand litres of fuel in a single year! There is no better way to travel for those of us who are eco conscious and celebrate Earth Day to its fullest. For more information on what you can do for the environment visit The Carbon List.

  • Online Gambling

Not a category than many would have thought would appear, I’m sure, but the online gambling industry is helping to save the planet one game and one sports bet at a time! These changes are coming about from the evolution of the industry from its original brick and mortar form to its online iteration as there are now so many choosing to place their sports bets, play their poker games and choose to play online bingo at sites like this one in the comfort of their own homes instead of venturing outside to local casinos and nightspots. This helps in two ways as there is less petrol being burnt and polluting the atmosphere and, with bingo and sports bets especially, there is less paper being used, for bingo books and betting slips, thus saving trees which, in turn, also keep our atmosphere clean and fresh.

Crystal

Crystal

Crystal Stemberger uses Budgeting in the Fun Stuff to write about finding the balance between paying your bills, saving for your future, and budgeting in the fun stuff along the way.